Too windy to windsurf so was surprised to see the two braving the 100 km/h winds today. Can't say it looked like fun but was impressive to watch.

Nice pics. Looks windy. Can't be totally crazy windy though because that guy is still wearing his baseball cap ;)

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Area10 said...
Nice pics. Looks windy. Can't be totally crazy windy though because that guy is still wearing his baseball cap ;)

I'm sure Chris (green cap) still has a red mark across his forehead from having his cap done up so tight..

It was 60 knots and I'm sure much higher gusts.. The guys in my group decided it was unsafe due to the offshore angle of the wind.. (not its strength).. and after checking out our landing location and seeing the direction the boats where pointed and not just a constant smoke on the water but tonado like gusts of swerling spray going across the water (heading straight offshore) and having to drop to my knees just to stand on the beach and needing to turn downwind because of the stinging sand spray on my face I soon realized that trying to hold my board in that wind exiting the water would have been near impossible so rather than chance it by going alone I gave in and took the safer option..

I must be getting old..

Yeah, I was joking. That looks like proper wind all right.

And yes, sometimes the risk to equipment of body is simply too much. Anything over 40 knots and I'm looking very carefully at entry and exit points, and the angle of the wind has to be pretty much perfect because there's only one way you are going.

I think this is just common sense. I have family that rely on me.

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DavidJohn said..

Area10 said...
Nice pics. Looks windy. Can't be totally crazy windy though because that guy is still wearing his baseball cap ;)

I'm sure Chris (green cap) still has a red mark across his forehead from having his cap done up so tight..

It was 60 knots and I'm sure much higher gusts.. The guys in my group decided it was unsafe due to the offshore angle of the wind.. (not its strength).. and after checking out our landing location and seeing the direction the boats where pointed and not just a constant smoke on the water but tonado like gusts of swerling spray going across the water (heading straight offshore)

Having to drop to my knees just to stand on the beach and needing to turn downwind because of the stinging sand spray I soon realized that trying to hold my board in that wind exiting the water would have been near impossible so rather than chance it by going alone I gave in and took the safer option..

I must be getting old..

I'd have to wear 2 leashes lol, wind that strong could snap a leash really easily if the board takes off from the water. I wonder if anyone has thought of a leash that absorbs the initial shock of a heavy pull?

Relapse thanks for the pics...definitely was crazy out there, especially as we approached the wall of death at sandy. We both thought we were not going to make it without getting slammed... Definitely an experience bring on the water in 60 knots...

saw these crew on 4WD yesterday near the Zuboards around 1:30pm and I must say I'm glad they didn't go from there, was soo windy! Nice boards gents I had to pull in behind the jeep and admire the 4 x board stack-up - 2x DEEP, SIC V? & note sure on the 4th board. So you did go out, later on I hope, from where? I heard the suprs from Geelong got blown out and its not easy to handle when the board weight 10kg.

That looks SICK! Epic fun! X

No one had to get rescued in Geelong don't know where that came from ??

2 Unlimted SIC Bullets but the red one is a new model with all new steering

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Area10 said..
Nice pics. Looks windy. Can't be totally crazy windy though because that guy is still wearing his baseball cap ;)

He's the local rep for that brand so he doesn't have to pay for his caps.

Forget the on water pictures, look at this happy couple on the beach in front of the bathing boxes just near where the guys are paddling past in the photos above!!
Three of us finished a little earlier on the same run, windiest run I've ever done, awesome!!!

I took my new Starby Freeride, 12'2 x 30, happy as Larry out there on that little gem, control, a nice progressive rocker with some tail kick and plenty of width. Not fast but so much fun, could actually have relax and surf some waves in ballistic conditions. Kept imagining that I looked like Ivan from Coreban in that amazing video from years ago when he is just ripping it up on that 12'6 Coreban something or other, the silver one. Of course I actually looked a bald guy in his late 50's stumbling up and down a board that looks like an elongated blue egg...
But boy it was fun

It was black...

Jonathan is too modest. Amazing effort that he (and 2 others) did St Kilda to Sandy in the middle of that storm....and he didn't fall off once! Sunday's conditions were extreme. I'm not the slightest regretful that I decided not to go. As DJ said, when we checked the exit point the gusts were mini tornadoes heading 45 degrees offshore.

The Bureau of Meteorology said it was a 1 in 5 year storm.

More fun a bit further south in the bay after the epic DW runs.

Great pics looked really challenging. JonathonC how are you finding the Starboard freeride apart from those conditions. Any comments or reviews ??
It may be a board that suits me.

That's funny, PT.
60 knots is full-on mental. 50 is my limit. Just getting the boards off a van and to the water safely is a full-on mission. The water spouts and other weird phenomena you get with winds that strong are a bit alarming as well.

I'd probably be wearing a helmet rather than a baseball cap :)

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Markus56 said..
Great pics looked really challenging. JonathonC how are you finding the Starboard freeride apart from those conditions. Any comments or reviews ??
It may be a board that suits me.

Hi Markus, the Freeride actually astonished me on Sunday. I'd only paddled it on the Yarra River and on the bay in light winds where I could paddle upwind and grab some tiny runner on the way back, it behaved really well on the little runners, quick to get on and easy to steer.
On the river it was slow compared to my 14' x 25 Ace (of course!) but certainly had some glide and was actually really good at drafting my buddies, just stuck right in behind the board in front. It's really really stable, can't say if that's just because I haven't had a 30" wide board for a looong time or if it's to do with the complex bottom shape, seems that everyone is saying the complex shape on the Allstars is giving them way more stability than they used to have for the same width, maybe that's why the Freeride feels stable without feeling like a complete slug.
The tail is actually quite thin (in thickness, not width) not huge volume back there and I think that's was one of the reasons it worked so well on Sunday. What I found was that I could stand about a foot behind the handle, easily get onto the wave and then speed up or slow down the board on the wave face by moving forward or back, there was no distinct rocker transition but obviously enough tail rocker that I could get back and slow it down and feel totally in control. Pretty nice feeling in crazy conditions like Sunday. But the thing that I wasn't expecting was how well it surfed, could very easily get onto the wave and do a mini bottom turn and just hammer across the wave face, which was actually what I had to do to keep the gusts from blowing me out...just keep going left!
Keep in mind, I'm 65kg and about 5'8, it's obviously got plenty of volume for bigger people but actually seems fine as an all round board for me. I bought it as a family all round board, good for friends wanting to learn etc, now I'm super keen to get it into some waves, was actually hoping it would take the place of my old 12'6 x 30 I stupidly sold years ago. So far it's a way faster and more stable flat water board and a far superior down wind board, have my doubts it will be a better true surfing board but who knows. I often surf a 12'6 x 25 Allstar from a couple of years ago, the low volume Turtle Bay one but I have a feeling the Freeride will be much easier and less technical to surf.
Also I'm a Starboard team rider just so you know, but I always try to be as upfront as possible about how I find the boards. Mine is the lightest construction the Starlite, but it's still a smidgen over 13kg. In the flesh it looks very rounded, two people have already asked me if it's an inflatable from just seeing it.
So far I'm absolutely rapt, wouldn't have wanted to do that run on Sunday on pretty much anything else and believe me I've got a heap of boards! Maybe an F16 SIC would have been good out there, but at my weight it probably would have simply been too much board, think the overall low profile of the Freeride was actually what let me cope with the insanely strong offshore gusts, somehow it allowed me too footsteer it from a fair way forward, keeping a bit more right foot pressure when I wasn't actually on a proper swell kept it heading left into the wind very effectively.
I really hope there is a super friendly stable 14 foot version of it next year, that would be an absolute killer intro downwind board. Just pm me if you want any more info. Cheers, Jonathan

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Area10 said..
That's funny, PT.
60 knots is full-on mental. 50 is my limit. Just getting the boards off a van and to the water safely is a full-on mission. The water spouts and other weird phenomena you get with winds that strong are a bit alarming as well.

I'd probably be wearing a helmet rather than a baseball cap :)

One of our three wore a helmet, actually a bloody good idea, I probably would have put on my old Gath if I'd thought of it. Such a huge risk of the board spinning and flying in that crazy wind, I got hit on the cheek once on Maui by a friends F16 in about 30 knots, bloody scary!

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Area10 said..
That's funny, PT.
60 knots is full-on mental. 50 is my limit. Just getting the boards off a van and to the water safely is a full-on mission. The water spouts and other weird phenomena you get with winds that strong are a bit alarming as well.

I'd probably be wearing a helmet rather than a baseball cap :)

Yes I agree, 50 knots is a nice, even, no-go zone for me too. And funnily enough, just as we were tying boards onto Jonathan's trailer, the readings at the Beacon hit 54. That was the end of my day, thanks all the same.

Thanks Jonathan for the detailed info. Something to think about although I am 80kg so maybe a 14' would be better. Anyway the local shop here stocks Starboard among others so will talk with them and demo as many as I can. Cheers.

"Keep in mind, I'm 65kg and about 5'8,"

Thanks Jonathan. So that's 10kg I have to lose, not the 5kg that I am perrenially targeting...
I blame Nozza btw...

And like a few others, I took my own advice on Sunday morning..."A man's got to know his limitations..."
Or was that Clint's advice?

Another epic day on Port Phillip bay today. Gusting at 43 knots and 36km of pure downwinding.

Yowza! Epic efforts by all! I'll be happy if there's only half that much wind there when I visit in March.. Stoked, and you Aussies say, frothing!!

These posts get me pretty excited to get to Melbourne in November and see what these runs are all about! Do any of you do a mega run across the hole bay is a sw?

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SUPerD said..
Yowza! Epic efforts by all! I'll be happy if there's only half that much wind there when I visit in March.. Stoked, and you Aussies say, frothing!!

Not across the whole bay. The transport issue alone would make it a very long day. We've done crossings on a westerly and pretty much paddled along every stretch of coastline. There's really only one section that I've never heard of anyone doing, and that's largely due to restricted access.

Wow, that's a long dw ChrisClarke1 is that like NW on that run? Has any done any dw in the western suburbs from werribee sth to williamstown or across to st kilda?

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JEG said..
Wow, that's a long dw ChrisClarke1 is that like NW on that run? Has any done any dw in the western suburbs from werribee sth to williamstown or across to st kilda?

Yes but it's usually been Point Cook across to Elwood. I've done Altona/Williamstown across to StKilda, and plan to do a few more of those with Teeps now living close to the beach at Willy.

The main thing of course is the shipping channel. The water is obviously much deeper through that section and so it gets a bit bumpy - you don't want to fall with a container ship bearing down on you. You really need to check the Port Authority schedule because those big bastards more pretty fast once they're up to speed. And they can't swerve to miss you.

The Freeride looks fun (did it beat a yellow board home?). I'm wondering about the rocker and nose profile. Does it really have the kind of rocker the Starboard rendering is showing? And is the nose mostly just a planning profile?


Hard to believe it would be such a Banana. Wishing for a 13'2" x 28", but I might have to give the 11'2" x 29" a look.

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baddog said...
The Freeride looks fun (did it beat a yellow board home?). I'm wondering about the rocker and nose profile. Does it really have the kind of rocker the Starboard rendering is showing? And is the nose mostly just a planning profile?


Hard to believe it would be such a Banana. Wishing for a 13'2" x 28", but I might have to give the 11'2" x 29" a look.

That's it..